Malnutrition and poverty in Guatemala

The objective of this paper is to document the extent, and distribution of child, and adult malnutrition in Guatemala; to analyze the relationship between selected child, maternal, household and community characteristics, and children's nutritional status; and, to outline the implications of the most important findings for nutritional policy. The prevalence of chronic malnutrition among Guatemalan children in 2000, was the highest in Latin America, and among the highest in the world. The data show very strong socioeconomic, and geographic inequality. The econometric analysis reveals a strong impact of income, and of inter-generational effects. Education of adults in the household, and the availability of infrastructure, are other important determinants of children's growth attainment. Finally, even controlling for income, and other household and community characteristics, ethnicity remains an important determinant of child nutritional status. The study also reveals an increasing prevalence of excess weights, and obesity among children and adults. Over-nutrition tends to be higher among individuals living in urban areas, and among non-poor, and non-indigenous households.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Early Child and Children's Health,Primary Education,Public Health Promotion,Early Childhood Development,Early Childhood Development,Youth and Governance,Nutrition,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Early Child and Children's Health

Health and poverty in Guatemala

Unlike many other countries in Latin America, Guatemala is only at the beginning of the demographic, and epidemiological transition. The population is young, is growing rapidly, and is still primarily rural. Guatemala is among the worst performers in terms of health outcomes in Latin America, with one of the highest infant mortality rates, and one of the lowest life expectancies at birth. Major causes of death in Guatemala still include treatable, and communicable diseases, such as diarrhea, pneumonia, cholera, malnutrition, and tuberculosis. A significant share of Guatemalans lack access to health care services. A combination of both supply- and demand-side constraints limit the ability of households to seek health care services in Guatemala, with supply-side constraints playing a more dominant role in rural areas than urban. Some progress has been made in reforming the health sector. Important steps have been taken on the institutional side, with health being one of the pilot ministries to decentralize financial management under the Integrated System for Health Care (SIAS program). Public spending has shifted toward preventive care, which is essential for treating the health problems faced by the poor. Despite these efforts, spending and health outcomes has not improved significantly. In addition, public spending on health is not well targeted. Overall, public health spending benefits the highest quintiles disproportionately, By type of facility, public spending on hospitals is by far the more regressive.Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Early Child and Children's Health,Public Health Promotion,Disease Control&Prevention,Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Health Indicators,Adolescent Health,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Nonlinear effects of altitude on child growth in Peru : a multilevel analysis

Growth at high altitude has been the object of many investigations after experimental studies on animals showed that hypoxia at high altitude slows growth. Many studies have also looked at the Andean populations and found different results. Even though a few studies find that individuals living at high altitudes are smaller than the ones living at low altitudes, a significant group of studies does not reveal such a clear relationship. This study focuses on Peru, a country characterized by a diverse territory, great altitude variations, and a population with a wide socioeconomic gradient. The analysis differs from previous studies in three ways. First, in an attempt to reconcile the main findings of the biological literature with the economic models of child health, it explores the relationship between altitude and child health within a multivariate framework. Second, it benefits from a large spectrum of altitude data and does not concentrate on one or two isolated villages. Third, it takes into account the cluster nature of the data and controls for correlation of variables in the same cluster through multilevel statistical modeling. After controlling for characteristics of the children, families, and communities, the data show a significant nonlinear relationship between altitude and child nutritional status. Peruvian children living at medium/high altitudes appear to be worse off than children living at extremely high altitudes, where the negative effect of hypoxia on growth could be compensated by other favorable health and environmental conditions.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Street Children,Youth and Governance,Early Child and Children's Health,Adolescent Health

Household's vulnerability to shocks in Zambia

Zambia is a county characterized by a high incidence of poverty and exposure to several types of shocks like HIV/AIDS, macroeconomic instability and periodic droughts. In this paper the authors conduct an in depth analysis of the incidence and impact of those shocks on poverty. The analysis of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, carried out using the data on the occurrence of the death of an adult in the previous 12 months and the existence of foster children, shows the existence of a generaldecrease in consumption with the exception of non poor rural families. The deterioration of the economic situation and the related high level of unemployment resulted in a lower level of economic wellbeing. Finally, the analysis of the impact of the drought shows that while a significant percentage (17 percent) of the poorest households in rural areas would experience significant losses in maize production (covering 8 percent of all the households), they are concentrated in a few communities in Southern, Central and Western provinces. In order to identify those households that might suffer more from the negative impact of the shocks and/or have a low level of human capital the authors defined"vulnerable households", those that are likely to be poor and exposed to shocks, and"chronically poor households", those that are likely to be poor and have low levels of human capital outcomes. According to this definition, about 20 percent of the households are vulnerable whilst almost 40 percent are chronically poor and 10 percent are at the same time both vulnerable and chronically poor and therefore at most risk. Private coping mechanisms and private transfers are very common, but they do not seem to be effective in helping households to deal with the adverse impact of shocks. On the other hand, household participation in food for work programs increase after the death of a household member. Therefore there is a need for long term household human capital investments, programs to alleviate the burden of HIV/AIDS, and targeted programs for the alleviating weather related shocks like the drought.Rural Poverty Reduction,Services&Transfers to Poor,Poverty Assessment,Small Area Estimation Poverty Mapping,Housing&Human Habitats

How Do Maternal Subclinical Symptoms Influence Infant Motor Development during the First Year of Life?

An unavoidable reciprocal influence characterizes the mother-child dyad. Within this relationship, the presence of depression, somatization, hostility, paranoid ideation, and interpersonal sensitivity symptoms at a subclinical level and their possible input on infant motor competences has not been yet considered. Bearing in mind that motor abilities represent not only an indicator of the infant\u2019s health-status, but also the principal field to infer his/her needs, feelings and intentions, in this study the quality of infants\u2019 movements were assessed and analyzed in relationship with the maternal attitudes. The aim of this research was to investigate if/how maternal symptomatology may pilot infant\u2019s motor development during his/her first year of life by observing the characteristics of motor development in infants aged 0\u201311 months. Participants included 123 mothers and their infants (0\u201311 months-old). Mothers\u2019 symptomatology was screened with the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), while infants were tested with the Peabody Developmental Motor Scale-Second Edition. All dyads belonged to a non-clinical population, however, on the basis of SCL-90-R scores, the mothers\u2019 sample was divided into two groups: normative and subclinical. Descriptive, t-test, correlational analysis between PDMS-2 scores and SCL-90-R results are reported, as well as regression models results. Both positive and negative correlations were found between maternal perceived symptomatology, Somatization (SOM), Interpersonal Sensitivity (IS), Depression (DEP), Hostility (HOS), and Paranoid Ideation (PAR) and infants\u2019 motor abilities. These results were further verified by applying regression models to predict the infant\u2019s motor outcomes on the basis of babies\u2019 age and maternal status. The presence of positive symptoms in the SCL-90-R questionnaire (subclinical group) predicted good visual-motor integration and stationary competences in the babies. In particular, depressive and hostility feelings in mothers seemed to induce an infant motor behavior characterized by a major control of the environmental space. When mothers perceived a higher level of hostility and somatization, their babies showed difficulties in sharing action space, such as required in the development of stationary positions and grasping abilities. In a completely different way, when infants can rely on a mother with low-perceived symptoms (normative group) his/her motor performances develop with a higher degree of freedom/independence. These findings suggest, for the first time, that even in a non- clinical sample, mother\u2019s perceived-symptoms can produce important consequences not in infant motor development as a whole, but in some specific areas, contributing to shape the infant\u2019s motor ability and his/her capability to act in the world

Analysis of a scaled stone masonry facade subjected to differential settlements

Historical masonry structures are vulnerable to differential settlements of the ground. This vulnerability is potentially higher for historic buildings on wooden pile foundations, which can have their bearing capacity reduced by material deterioration. In order to protect such buildings from the effect of soil subsidence it is therefore essential assessing their response to settlements. The aim of this paper is to investigate the settlement-induced damage on a stone masonry façade. For the first time, experimental testing and computational analyses were performed on a scaled model of a specific existing historic structure, the Loggia palace in Brescia, Italy. Differential settlements were applied to dry blocks and mortar joints models of the façade. Experimental results showed the capability of the façade to reach a new equilibrium configuration following the subsidence of two adjacent columns. This approach can be used to assess the behaviour of similar structures. The validated numerical model confirms the interpretation of the failure mechanism and has the potential to allow extending the approach to a wider range of settlement and structural scenarios, as well as to different buildings

Salud, interculturalidad y comportamiento de riesgo

El objetivo del presente estudio es analizar los factores determinantes de la desnutrición infantil (talla para la edad de los niños menores de 2 años), con énfasis en el análisis del rol del conocimiento de las madres sobre nutrición infantil en relación con el crecimiento y desarrollo de sus hijos. Se busca, además, explorar los mecanismos por cuya vía las madres obtienen estos conocimientos y forman sus percepciones, y analizar los canales mediante los cuales estos afectan el desarrollo de sus hijos.Nutrition, Children, Peru

Addressing malnutrition multisectorally : what have we learned from recent international experience? Case studies from Peru, Brazil, Bangladesh

In this report, authors Jim Levinson and Yarlini Balarajan of UNICEF New York and Alessandra Marini of the World Bank present three major case studies from Peru, Brazil and Bangladesh, but also a historical review of multisectoral nutrition activities in several other countries around the world. The report offers conclusions and lessons learned focusing on the value of combining nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions that functions together in targeted areas, the importance of nutrition-related related results-based incentives to generate action on sub-national levels, and the importance of advocacy at the policy level.MDG Achievement Fund Secretariat, Cooperación Español

Authentication of Sorrento walnuts by NIR spectroscopy coupled with different chemometric classification strategie

Walnuts have been widely investigated because of their chemical composition, which is particularly rich in unsaturated fatty acids, responsible for different benefits in the human body. Some of these fruits, depending on the harvesting area, are considered a high value-added food, thus resulting in a higher selling price. In Italy, walnuts are harvested throughout the national territory, but the fruits produced in the Sorrento area (South Italy) are commercially valuable for their peculiar organoleptic characteristics. The aim of the present study is to develop a non-destructive and shelf-life compatible method, capable of discriminating common walnuts from those harvested in Sorrento (a town in Southern Italy), considered a high quality product. Two-hundred-and-twenty-seven walnuts (105 from Sorrento and 132 grown in other areas) were analyzed by near-infrared spectroscopy (both whole or shelled), and classified by Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA). Eventually, two multi-block approaches have been exploited in order to combine the spectral information collected on the shell and on the kernel. One of these latter strategies provided the best results (98.3% of correct classification rate in external validation, corresponding to 1 misclassified object over 60). The present study suggests the proposed strategy is a suitable solution for the discrimination of Sorrento walnuts. © 2020 by the authors

Chemometric Methods for Spectroscopy-Based Pharmaceutical Analysis

Spectroscopy is widely used to characterize pharmaceutical products or processes, especially due to its desirable characteristics of being rapid, cheap, non-invasive/non-destructive and applicable both off-line and in-/at-/on-line. Spectroscopic techniques produce profiles containing a high amount of information, which can profitably be exploited through the use of multivariate mathematic and statistic (chemometric) techniques. The present paper aims at providing a brief overview of the different chemometric approaches applicable in the context of spectroscopy-based pharmaceutical analysis, discussing both the unsupervised exploration of the collected data and the possibility of building predictive models for both quantitative (calibration) and qualitative (classification) responses